The trials by law were conducted with all order and fairness. There was no unusual mode of procedure. In those days justice leaned towards the accuser, and inclined to punishment; but witchcraft was not an exception, or was treated worse than murder or theft, and not nearly so badly as heresy. As I said before, these trials of witches would come in spasms, and with all the fury of an epidemic. The history of one such epidemic I propose to relate. In the year 1682 there lived in the town of Bideford three old women, poor, ugly, and discontented. One, Temperance Lloyd, pursued the lucrative occupation of an apple-woman, when she could find any good citizen rash enough to deal with her. No good housewife would allow her children to go near her; for she was a witch, and the children might get under the influence of the evil-eye. Once she had been sent to the assizes, but was acquitted, much to the disgust of the Bideford folk. On another occasion she had been dragged before the magistrates and examined, but let off. It was no light matter to be tried for witchcraft; but then there was one consolation, nothing could be done to a witch until she had been forsaken by the devil, her master; so it was only necessary to try her often enough. She had two companions in her evil ways; one was Susanna Edwards, who was a witch of a higher class than old Temperance Lloyd, for she had a pupil, one Mary Trembles, who had come to an understanding with Susanna Edwards to learn the art and mystery of witchcraft in all its branches. Things had been going on very quietly in Bideford for some time. People had died in unusual ways, and many had suffered without making much ado about it; but there is an end to all things, and one day the storm broke. This came about in the following manner: